Essentially, you never know if you’re going to get Buddy Love or Professor Klump (or Professor Julius Kelp, it you’re a big Jerry Lewis fan) when these two take the hill, so it’s going to be up to the Indians’ deep thinkers to decide who the better option is to take the bump for the parent club every 5th day to give them a chance to win.

Throw into the mix that Cliff Lee retains an option (and that Wedge completely destroyed him in the post-game interviews on Wednesday night) and this whole “When Jake comes back, Sowers goes to Buffalo” thing could get a lot more interesting.

If Sowers strings together some solid starts and Lee can’t gain command of his pitches while coming out unprepared to start and “brain-cramping” in the field, it’s very possible that Lee is the one that gets the “wake-up call” on the ride to Buffalo. Of course, Sowers could put a few more “Bad Starts” on his stat sheet and make the fact that Lee has not shown any consistency a moot point.

“But Lee signed a long-term deal”, you say. True, but this year he’s scheduled to make $750,000 or about $400,000 more than Sowers. While it’s true that Lee is owed $12.25M through the end of 2009, if the Indians are truly serious about putting the best players on the field, regardless of salary, this could be interesting to watch as the two LHP with a penchant for fly balls stake their claim to what has become the 5th spot in the rotation.

Off to Wisconsin for the holiday weekend, where I’ll thankfully be able to see the Saturday game on FOX and the Sunday game on ESPN (unless ESPN decides to break in with coverage of Roger Clemens going to a New York steakhouse for dinner, then dissecting his ability to order food, cut food, eat, etc.).

Monday includes a trip to Miller Park to see the NL Central leaders, drink some Miller products, and watch some sausages run around.

The satellite office in Milwaukee should be set for a Lazy Sunday (and maybe Monday), but feel free to go nuts in the comments.

Posted by
Paul Cousineau

14 comments:

IF the Tribe sends Lee down (doubtful) for a wakeup call, the player has two options in responding to the move. One, get his head out of his butt, or two, be completely offended and have his relationship with the team go down the drain.

If Lee goes down and chooses the latter, he will not be with the team much longer. They have too much good young pitching to mess with an attitude and they could move him for a much needed closer or stud bat.

It may not happen immediately, but my guess is he would not take the demotion well.

The Tribe needs another piece or two, definitely a bullpen arm, to compete deep into the playoffs, and Lee (who has never been by favorite, but is successful and LH) could nab some large returns. Andy Marte (if he still retains any actual value) can go too as far as I'm concerned, with Blake being the short-term answer at third and Jhonny sliding over to accomodate Cabrera in the not-too-distant future.

Wow, did anyone see how Dean Hancock, Josh Hancock's father, is suing everyone short of the Anheuser Busch and the dope dealer that sold his son the pot found in the car. Way to lash out and honor your son's memory, Dean. Blaming your son's poor decisions on everyone but him?

Included in the lawsuit is Justin Tolar, the guy whose car broke down that the tow truck was helping.

From the AP story, "The lawsuit claimed Tolar was negligent in allowing his Geo Prism to reach the point where it stalled on the highway, and for failing to move it out of the way of oncoming traffic. A police report said the Prism became stalled when it spun out after being cut off by another vehicle."

Millions of St. Louis residents breathed a sigh of relief they weren't also included in the lawsuit.

Whoa, not too long ago Marte was one of the best prospects in the minors. He only has about 250 MLB ABs. We'd be foolish to give up on him this early. Not everyone sticks like Grady when they make it to the show. Oh yeah, he's also only 23 and we have no developed 3B in our system.

As for the Cavs, I have a gripe with the TNT crew. How can they have straight face and say that may or may not have been a call on Lebron? Are they scared of Stern too? I agree, the Cavs lost the game by playing like crap, but seriously? And how am I supposed to follow a league where the general consensus is that you don't get actual fouls on the road, as the TNT crew agreed, only at home? Can someone explain that to me? Charles, I think officiating (among other things) has more to do with losing this NBA fan than Oden and Durant going to the West.

i wouldn't move marte, the tribe's building a team that can contend for the long haul (we hope), moving marte for a quick fix would leave us empty at 3rd. agreed he needs to stay off the low and away crap

guy on espn daily dime counted 5 fouls that could have been called on Rip the last play...and hamilton laughed twice when asked if he fouled him